Ame is reading a book in her daddy's bed when she hears the thump downstairs. At his desk, across the bedroom, her daddy's head snaps around in the same moment she looks up from the page. The story is instantly forgotten. Ame doesn't know why she should be alarmed by the noise, strange as it is, but in the manner of many small children she instantly picks up on the fact that her daddy is, and that is enough to make her heart thud and her palms sweat.
He bursts out of his chair, kicks the bedroom door shut, and snatches Ame out of her blanket bundle, all in nearly the same move. He dashes into the closet, and sets a confused, watchful Ame down in the back by the dress slacks.
"Hide," he says, the word laced with a tightly leashed urgency. "Don't make a sound. Can you do that for me, babygirl?"
Ame can only nod.
Her daddy turns off the light and shuts the door, plunging her into darkness, but she can her movement. She jumps when a loud bang and breaking sound bursts into the room, and her daddy snarls. She creeps up to the crack in the closet door and peeks out.
